US: Chinese drywall not harmful

"[WASHINGTON] Federal product-safety regulators said Thursday that their
sampling of Chinese drywall emits higher concentrations of sulfur gases and
strontium than U.S.-made product, but found no evidence so far that the
emissions were to blame for health problems and metal corrosion reported by
at least 1,900 U.S. homeowners."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125682903154416173.html
Who to believe? The government or your own watery eyes?
Let me think...

Hey Bub-
The quote you cited includes the phrase "so far". And if you look at the full
Wall Street Journal article in the URL you included in your posting (above), the
second paragraph of the full article explicitly identifies the government's
report as "preliminary".
In your rush to condemn the government, you are ignoring inconvenient
information that negates your criticism.
The alleged structural damage done by the off-gassing from the suspect drywall
took time to develop due to the relatively low concentrations of whatever
volatile chemicals may be responsible. In order to scientifically establish
whether or not the drywall is at fault, it is probably necessary to do a
thorough chemical analysis of the off-gasses, including their concentration, and
then expose typical home construction materials to the same mixture of gasses at
the same concentrations and same conditions of temperature and humidity.
You cannot always extrapolate the effects of low level exposure by using a
higher concentration for a shorter exposure period to accelerate the testing
time. Many toxic and/or corrosive substances exhibit a threshold effect, where
low or very low levels of exposure produce a different (or even null) effect
compared with a higher exposure. Doing the science properly takes a certain
amount of time that cannot always be rushed, despite what you may believe.

You make a good point, yet your point raises an even more interesting
question:
If the results (so far) are inconclusive, equivocal, almost meaningless, and
merely suggest a hint of a shadow of a possible trend, why say anything at
all?
Is the obviously premature report a mistake in its release or an attempt to
influence something: Diplomatic relations, pending lawsuit results, the
World Series winner?

At the time people were buying this drywall they just felt lucky to
get any drywall from anywhere. It was right after Katrina and in the
middle of a building boom that had already swallowed up all the
drywall the US could produce.
A few companies like Centex Homes got in front of this problem and
built their own drywall plants but most just bought at the market
price..

Katrina construction played a major role in the expansion of steel-stud
construction (they use sheet metal in C or I sections) which can even be
CAD/CAM prefabbed. During WW2 Chinag Kai Shek mothballed his nvy in New
Orleans and since they were wooden, they brought over unusually aggressive
termites. THose termites have spread so much that south of Mason-Dixon you
can't insure new wood-stud construction. CHina has also had a building
boom. Ditto the Kemp-Cuomo subprime boom. We have had a lot of innovation,
but also there is a lot of room for mistakes when you do things in a hurry. I
have friends whose 1970s houses (in one of the five wealthiest zip codes in
the country) frighten me: leaking skylights which cook everyone in the
summer, plywood floors that keep needing more beams to keep from collapsing;
yet these houses continue to fetch astronomical prices. The worst asbestos
came about by government mandates and public works booms in the
1930s. Sheetrock was invented largely because of the GI Bill. The financial
crisis happened because people introduced too many new things without testing
them sufficiently. Edmunde Burke used to advocate making changes slowly
because you never know which thread you pull will disintegrate the entire
fabric. Such mistakes are inevitable, but I think instead of dropping our
guard when we are in a hurry, we should enhance it.
*+-At the time people were buying this drywall they just felt lucky to
*+-get any drywall from anywhere. It was right after Katrina and in the
*+-middle of a building boom that had already swallowed up all the
*+-drywall the US could produce.
- = -
Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist
http://www.panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm http://www.facebook.com/vasjpan2
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---
[Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards]
[Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

Since SW Florida is ground zero in this mess I wonder how much of this
sulfur is coming from the drywall and how much is just coming from
their well water.
That is always a surprise for people who come here from up north.
I know a guy who is fixing two genuine chinese drywall houses as we
speak and damage to a running A/C coil seems to be the biggest problem
the drywall caused. In the other house the A/C was off and the coil is
OK. You are still stripping the walls back to the studs

A couple other drywall factoids I got from a friend:
Drywall can contain asbestos. If a material contains less than 1%
asbestos it is not regulated [1% seems rather high to me]. Some Chinese
drywall has been found to have 3% asbestos.
Drywall contains gypsum (it is also called gypsum board). Gypsum is
calcium sulfate, so 'normal' drywall contains sulfur (but bound in the
gypsum molecule).

This seems to vary from, person to person.
I was in a "drywall" house the other day. I noticed the musty smell
but it had no real affect on me. My friend had a sore throat, runny
nose and he said his eyes burned.
I do have some pictures, this is an FTP site, use your back button to
get back to the index.
http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Chinese%20Drywall /

In 1985 NYC air had 1 fiber of asbestos/cc and the Germans workplace
standard was .2/cc and the USA one 2/cc. Plus I seem to recall Vermont
"white" asbestos is at least one order of magnitude less dangerous
than South African "blue" and fiberglass is at least one order of
magnituded less hazardous than "white".
*+-Drywall can contain asbestos. If a material contains less than 1%
*+-asbestos it is not regulated [1% seems rather high to me]. Some Chinese
*+-drywall has been found to have 3% asbestos.
- = -
Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist
http://www.panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm http://www.facebook.com/vasjpan2
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---
[Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards]
[Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

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